Ling Long L688

Ninth place: The unusual suspects.

This Ling Long proves that a complete tire design involves more than just a tread pattern, because the L688’s V-shaped layout is essentially a copy of Yokohama’s AVS Sport tire.

Consistently finishing last in all of the performance categories, the Ling Longs’ dry autocross performance was so far behind the other tires’ that we had to round its score up to zero to keep it from being negative. Geswein used the words “hard” and “skatey” to describe the Ling Longs’ feel. Their best showing was on the skidpad, where an 0.88-g effort tied the Yokohamas’ for last.

Things got worse in the wet, where slip-and-slide behavior required a conservative effort to stay between the cones. The Ling Longs were a full five seconds off the autocross pace and needed 22 more feet—1.5 3-series car-lengths—to stop from 50 mph than did the best Hankooks.

On the street loop, we were irritated by a low-speed drone, and these were the only tires to squeal under semi-aggressive cornering.

Aside from tires, the parent company, Shandong Ling Long, in Zhaoyuan, China, also specializes in cement. Is this a strategic advantage? We’re not sure, but the Ling Longs showed the least wear after testing—we nicknamed them the “Live Longs”—so there may be a connection. But even though they cost half the price of many competing tires, they scored less than half the points of even the eighth-place tire. To us, that doesn’t qualify as a value, even at $57.

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*AccuPayment estimates payments under various scenarios for budgeting and informational purposes only. AccuPayment does not state credit or lease terms that are available from a creditor or lessor, and AccuPayment is not an offer or promotion of a credit or lease transaction.